It’s Shatner’s world … we just live in it

It’s not every day that the captain of the U.S.S. Enterprise comes to town purely for our entertainment.

As one of four Texas dates, iconic actor and unintentionally hilarious spoken-word recording artist William Shatner will perform his one-man show Shatner’s World at the Lutcher on Monday.

In the show, Shatner uses songs, anecdotes, and jokes to explore what he calls “the greatest character he has ever played” — himself. If it sounds a bit self-indulgent, perhaps you need to remember that this is the guy who played James T. Kirk on Star Trek, and what have you done lately?

In honor of this beautiful opportunity we have been given — to explore the psyche of a man who recently Tweeted such poignancies as, “late for brunch,” “I’m trying to relax today” and “What is it with the fart questions tonight?”— we’re sharing a few facts about the inventor of whatever Shatoetry is.

Having entered the world in Montreal in 1931, Shatner is Canada’s greatest export after maple syrup, Canada jokes and Sir Dave Coulier.

According to his Twitter account, he does not play the bagpipes. Which is disappointing.

Shatner is not a U.S. citizen, which means that, contrary to popular belief, James T. Kirk did not vote for Obama.

Shatner recently did a public service announcement for NASA, which makes us wonder how much Star Trek those NASA nerds have been watching.

In 2006, while working on the set of the show Boston Legal, Shatner was rushed to the hospital with lower back pain that turned out to be a kidney stone. Shatner sold the kidney stone to GoldenPalace.com for $25,000, which he then donated to build a home for Habitat for Humanity, bringing a whole new meaning to the phrase “The house that William Shatner’s kidney stone built.”

In his spare time, Shatner enjoys antiquing and breeding quarter horses. We are not making these things up.

Shatner considers himself a close friend of Star Trek co-star Leonard Nimoy, but the same cannot be said of George Takei, who played Sulu. Shatner once made a YouTube video claiming that Takei suffers from some sort of psychosis.

In 1968, Shatner famously shared an on-screen kiss with Nichole Nichols, the actress who played Lt. Uhura. The smooch is considered the first example of an interracial kiss between a white man and a black woman on scripted American television.

Shatner put out his first spoken-word album in 1968, covering songs like “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds.” His 1978 cover of Elton John’s “Rocket Man” is his most famous spoken-word performance, but he’s put out two albums since. Musician Ben Folds produced Shatner’s second spoken-word release.

Shatner’s official app Shatoetry allows you to create poetry that is then recited in Shatner’s voice. We know how we’re calling in sick from work next time.

Shatner hates watching himself perform and claims to have never willingly seen an episode of Star Trek. This is the one thing we have in common, Shatner.